China Gas Field Disaster Kills 191

December 25, 2003

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- At least 191 people were killed and hundreds poisoned when a natural gas well in southwest China burst and released a cloud of toxic fumes, medical workers, officials and state media said on Thursday.

Officials said a gas well burst in the Chuan Dongbei gas field northeast of Chongqing city, releasing natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen "killing and poisoning many people," the state-run Xinhua News agency reported.

Xinhua reported that by 6:40 p.m. Thursday the death toll stood at 191.

Officials from the China National Petroleum Corporation, which owns the field, set fire to the escaping gas in an attempt to stop it from spreading, a CNPC official told Xinhua.

A CNPC rescue team planned to pump 260 cubic meters of mud into the well Friday morning in an attempt to cap it, Xinhua reported.

Details of the tragedy have been slow to emerge because of the area is remote. The gas field is 337 kilometers northeast of Chongqing city, rescue officials said.

Rescue officials told CNN that rescue crews were still in the area, and that the gas leak had not been contained. The cause of the "blowout" was still unknown, they said.

China has a notoriously poor work safety record.

More than 120,000 people died in work-related accidents from January to November this year, the official China Daily said earlier this month.

Chongqing and the neighboring province of Sichuan are among China's major natural gas producing areas.

-- CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver contributed to this report

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/25/china.gas/index.html